Thursday, November 12, 2009

The joys of Chr*stm*s Sh*pp*ng

Current work: working on outline for next Med
Listening to: Silje Nergaard (waves at Nina, who introduced me to gorgeous CD)
Reading: next on TBR

I used to be incredibly organised. All Christmas shopping was done and wrapped by half term. All cards were written and ready to be posted. I was incredibly focused.

Nowadays… uhh. Christmas has got out of hand – take as read the grumpy old woman rant about how everything’s too commercialised and the real meaning of Christmas has been lost. (Well, it is and it has.)

I braved the shops and did most of my shopping today. Now it’s a matter of ticking things off the main list, wrapping them (sadly, that’s my job – I’m not good at it but DH claims he’s worse and then proves it by wrapping something deliberately badly), writing my ‘final bits to get’ list, writing cards (and I am SOOOO glad I spent the time one year to put everyone’s address on a file I can print straight on to labels – saves so much time now), and doing the post office run.

Of my remaining bits, some can be done online, and the rest I’m leaving to another day because I’m shopped out.

So come on. Fess up. How far are you along the Christmas treadmill?

29 comments:

Rachel said...

Um, have six (3 for 2)chocolate oranges for teachers and paperboys.

Am panicking now...

Love,

Rach.
XXX

Anonymous said...

Christmas?

(Every year I decide to do a proper Advent, then realise it's already too late. Oops. So, thanks for the timely reminder - I might actually get some candles together this year!)

mpe

Anonymous said...

Nina waves back at Kate.

And shakes her head.
Christmas? What that?
It's only July now, isn't it...?Oh.
Gulp.
Nothing. Zilch. De nada. Zero.
sigh,,,

Jill said...

Hear, hear. Glad I'm not the only one grinchy about Christmas shopping.
We got 90% of our gift shopping done yesterday online which sounds great until you look at the bill.
Husband has a very large family. They are very lavish with presents. My family is very small and presents are not a big deal. We're all about Christmas dinner :-) Every year, this always causes some type of conflict.
This year husband decided at the last minute that we needed to go over budget and spend more on immediate family members. We were getting my brother-in-law some rather expensive tools and my husband wanted everyone else's gift to be "equal." So he does have a point. I just hate the feeling that it isn't so much the gift you give, but how much you spent on it.
I looked at our finances and grumbled, but agreed. I hate feeling like a cheap Scrooge every year, but I would be just as glad to receive fewer presents as I would to give them.

Caroline said...

Yikes! I haven't even thought about Christmas yet. Although most of the prezzies these days involve cash - ask the teenagers what they want and it's "Dunno. Money I suppose...." ((SIGH)) the joy of buying individual personal prezzies has long gone....Take care. Caroline x

linda margaret said...

Kate;

You sound really quite organized to me. I have very little done yet. DH and I have started talking about it but realistically very little will be done until December.

Linda

Scarlet Wilson said...

Have most of the presents for my two sons, because they are the most important. Have a few small gifts for other family members, but not that worried about them. Have to confess that if I'd bought six choclate oranges for teachers and paperboys there is NO WAY they would see them, and I would have the biggest grin on my face up until Christmas, I Love choclate orange!

Kimberly Lang said...

Holy dog. It's barely November!

I have a pressie for the BFF that I picked up a couple of weeks ago because it just screamed "Take me to your BFF!" I have pressies for my editor, purchased on impulse because I happened to be at the store.

Everything else? Nada.

Of course, I still have Thanksgiving to get through first...

Sheila Norton said...

No! No, no no! It's not time for Christmas shopping yet! Sorry, I'm one of the 'Save Christmas for December' brigade - I LOVE Christmas but I hate it being in the shops from September onwards. I know it's crowded in December, and all the best things will be gone from the shelves (thanks to you early shoppers out there!)but it's more exciting, more real, more Christmassy! It's how it should be! And it's not just because I'm now retired - all through my full-time-working-with-three-kids previous life, I always did the bulk of my Christmas shopping in the 2 weeks prior to Christmas, and it always all got done. Somehow! Start things too early and you just end up 'meeting yourself coming back' as my old grandma used to say! No! It's not time yet! xx

Nell Dixon said...

I've got quite a few things already because I have so many birthdays between now and Christmas too. I use FLY lady and she does a great Christmas organiser that I print off every year and update in my special red Christmas folder.

Donna Alward said...

Well darling your prezzie was in the mail last week. :-) And the extended family is all getting theirs this weekend.

But the girls and dh aren't finished yet. We are however having our stir up Sunday this weekend. :-)

Lacey Devlin said...

Kate you put me to shame! I'm a December shopper, sometimes a christmas eve shopper for the last little bits. Perhaps I like to be stressed off my scone? :P

Sharon Kendrick said...

I do have SOME presents stashed away - but (as always happens) - I won't find them until next January. And am filled with dread about writing Christmas cards (why didn't I think of using labels?) - as the spectre of my unfinished book hangs over me like a dark cloud.....
Kimberley - just LOVE that expression "Holy dog"! Another great Southernism, I assume?

Kate Hardy said...

Rachel - you're a brave woman, buying chocolate oranges this early. I'd have to hide them ;o)

Kate Hardy said...

MPE - we've had letters home about school Christmas dinners, so that galvanised me...

Kate Hardy said...

Nina - yup, it's the middle of November. Where did the year go?

Kate Hardy said...

Hugs, Jill - that's a tough one. We agreed a limit with everyone last year... but for me Christmas isn't about pressies. (I'd rather have one small present with a lot of thought behind it, than a pile of stuff grabbed off the shelves.) What I like is time spent with the family, playing board games and laughing too much. And trying different Christmas recipes and feeding people :o)

Kate Hardy said...

Caroline - mm, it's got to the 'cash' stage with eldest. However, I still get the fun of doing a Christmas stocking. And we have "Santa Pressies" for our "early Christmas" celebrations with family who live too far away to see on the day, so I can be creative there, too!

Kate Hardy said...

Linda - I have to be semi-organised, because we see people every weekend starting from the last weekend in November, so I need to have their pressies ready. (Am hoping that the school photos will be here in time, otherwise it'll mean cardboard envelopes and sending by post!)

DH does his shopping on Christmas Eve (i.e. my present). I just couldn't face the crowds!

Kate Hardy said...

Susan - LOL on the chocolate oranges. Would be the same in this house (except daughter would be the one with the grin, and son would do the "sad green eyes" bit and ask plaintively if I would consider buying Lindor balls...)

Kate Hardy said...

Kimberley - oh, yes, Thanksgiving! That must be quite hard, having two holidays so close together. Two lots of turkey, and all the trimmings...

One of our neighbours is American, and he introduced us to pumpkin pie. Yum...

Kate Hardy said...

Olivia - LOL! I agree, though - it starts way too early. September is mad - the kids have only just gone back to school.

I'm only organised because otherwise I'd have to send things through the post (which would be a pain for the person who has to take time out to go to the post office and pick up the parcels).

Plus I'm rubbish at wrapping things and would rather do a couple of things a week than spend the whole of Christmas eve covered in sellotape and then panicking when I realised I'd run out of paper...!

Kate Hardy said...

Nell - Flylady sounds interesting. Must go and investigate.

Mmm, birthdays too. We have half a dozen between now and Christmas (and half of them are in Christmas week).

Kate Hardy said...

Donna - I knew you'd be organised ;o)

Stir up Sunday sounds fab. I'd love to do that, but I'm the only one in the house who likes fruit cake or Christmas pudding, so that tradition has gone by the by. (I should perhaps confess that our Christmas cake is, um, chocolate...)

Kate Hardy said...

Lacey - brave woman! (And I love that expression. 'Stressed off my scone'!)

Kate Hardy said...

Shazza - that's precisely why I do the labels and get the shopping out of the way. I always, *always* have a Christmas deadline. Being organised avoids the stress of a double deadline - shopping and the book!

Anonymous said...

than spend the whole of Christmas eve covered in sellotape and then panicking when I realised I'd run out of paper...!

But that's the true meaning of Christmas! Isn't it?

*watches childhood world collapse*

;-)

mpe

Unknown said...

Oh my goodness, I haven't done anything yet. I thought I was being quite organised letting the thought of Christmas pass through my mind now and again.

I could do the grumpy old woman rant about it being too commercialised too. Bah humbug.

Kimberly Lang said...

Sharon -- "Holy Dog" is what nice Southern girls say because in the Buckle of the Bible Belt, swapping the D and G around would get us in BIG trouble.

And I'm full of lovely Southern sayings. :-) I've got a great Rebel Yell, too (but that's not very lady-like).